All posts by Chris

Stuffing the Genie Back In the Bottle

Politics

The Washington Post has a well-written article on suppressing the work of a grad student because it might compromise national security. The twist here is that the student is reorganizing publicly-available data using mapping techniques. Nothing proprietary, no espionage involved. So where’s the risk? Only that it makes government and corporations nervous.

More commentary on this in a moment. I need to have breakfast.

UPDATE: I’ve included my thoughts in the extended entry below.
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Resist

Politics

We’ve known from the beginning that the PATRIOT act was bad news. Luckily, we’re not alone. Apparently cities around the country are calling on law enforcement to resist the PATRIOT act by refusing to cooperate with activities it authorizes that would otherwise be unlawful.

Eh, Steve!

Fun

If you’ve wondered how it is that Homestar Runner gets produced (and paid for), Wired News has just the interview for you. I’m glad that the Brothers Chaps are able to fund the whole thing themselves; it looks like they have the right attitude toward it.

Thanks to Deana for the heads-up.

90 light years is so close

Space

By now you may have heard of the discovery of a new planetary system that looks a whole lot like our own. It’s 90 light years away, but as a wise man once said, “that’s peanuts to space.” Seriously, 90 light years is the kind of distance we’ll be able to travel in a few months (relative) once we get the basics of interstellar flight taken care of.

Even better, seeing a solar system like our own so close to home makes it even more likely that we’ll find one with Earth-like life sometime fairly soon. That’s why I like reading this:

ESA is leading the way with its Darwin mission to analyse the atmospheric composition of Earth-like planets. This flotilla of six space telescopes will launch in around 2014.

How very 21st century!

Fun stuff!

Science

I’ve been reading a lot about carbon nanotubes lately. (Specifically, I’m reading The Space Elevator, which is fascinating despite the sketchy writing style.) There seems to be no end to great uses for them, including bulletproof T-shirt fabric. And to think, we didn’t even know they existed until a decade ago. Go nanotubes!

UPDATE: Deb noticed that I had the wrong link. It’s been corrected.